BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – The global pharmaceutical industry is valued at $1.4 trillion US dollars in 2021, and employs more than 4.4 million people worldwide. Employees are hired to typically work in and grow within one area of the business (administration, brand management, sales, marketing, etc). Very few employees have the business acumen, clinical understanding, and technical sophistication to work across all business functions and spearhead a pharmaceutical company’s strategy. Such employees typically form the executive leadership team of the company, define strategic imperatives of the company and heavily rely on the rest of the employees to drive operations that bring the vision to reality.
A small group of experts ‘management consultants forms a group of external experts, assisting leadership in strategic decision making and partnering with functional leaders to drive implementation of the vision. As experts. They are responsible for solving issues along the way and driving the organization toward its goals. Consulting jobs are thus extremely competitive, with only a 1-3% acceptance rate at top firms. These experts are routinely hired by C-suite executives or owners of a company (in a PE firm ownership setup) to objectively assess the work of executives within a company and drive the company towards success. What differentiates this group – how to break into the profession? Dr. Deepak Patil, a physician and successful management consultant shares perspectives on his experiences at notable management consulting companies like IQVIA and IBM, and his current role as a real-world data strategist at Merative.
Why Consulting?
Though Deepak went through an arduous training curriculum to become a registered physician, why did he choose a management consulting career? Dr. Patil mentioned that his first exposure to the industry was in a medical affairs function – which directly built upon his skills as a physician. He desired to increase his business acumen, and breadth of knowledge to participate in other broader corporate decision-making in life sciences companies. “A career in management consulting pushes you to build experience in a variety of strategic and operational challenges across the drug development continuum in a very short period of time. It requires a lot of reading, staying on top of industry needs and solutions, and hands-on training to develop a breadth of knowledge. This breadth of knowledge is extremely valuable to have a broader impact on the industry and accelerate one’s career”
How to be successful?
There is no magic bullet to success! You have to build an adequate depth of knowledge to act as an expert on a variety of issues. At the same time, flexibility in designing solutions across functional areas is critical to a management consultant’s job. Understanding the intricacies of the global healthcare system is absolutely critical to successfully advising pharmaceutical companies on growth strategies. “You have to become a trusted advisor to senior executives to be successful as a management consultant. Next time they have a problem, they should call you to brainstorm challenges and seek your counsel on designing and implementing solutions.” Dr. Patil mentioned that he is often brought on board for solving an unstructured problem. The first step is always spending enough time peeling layers of the issue to get to the core of the challenge. He also identified intellectual curiosity, willingness to learn, asking the right questions, and strategic thinking as critical competencies for management consultants. Additionally, communication skills and stakeholder management are very important to building trust and implementing solutions on a large scale.
Career Advice
The management consulting industry is growing. The majority of management consulting firms are extremely selective in choosing candidates and are always in search of new candidates to add to their board. Dr. Patil mentioned that “Demonstrating an ability to think critically and build an opinion on a problem with inadequate information is a highly desirable quality of new hires. Executives deal with these problems always. Hence most consulting firms have a case-based interview format. He recommends students “Sharpen critical thinking ability through solving complex puzzles and practicing case studies”. Dr. Patil mentors students seeking to land a job in the pharmaceutical industry and junior management consultants seeking to improve their consulting abilities.
